Sermon preached by The Rev'd Susan Kraus

St. Paul’s on the Green, Norwalk, Connecticut

The Fourth Sunday of Lent – March 2, 2008 - 8:00 a.m.

This morning’s account, from the gospel of John, of Jesus healing the man born blind is much more than a description of a healing miracle. It is that, but the author of the gospel also uses this event to talk about blindness in a much wider context than physical blindness. It seems that most of the characters in this drama are blind in some way – everyone, in fact, except Jesus.

The man healed by Jesus was, obviously, physically blind.

The disciples, in their wondering who had sinned to cause the blindness – the man or his parents – are themselves blind to the reality of innocent suffering, suffering without a moral cause. Surely as they had traveled with Jesus and been present when he fed the hungry, healed the sick and cast out demons, they’d had enough experience of human life to know that many people suffer from afflictions of all kinds without anyone’s sin being the cause. And they’d had enough experience to know that Jesus’ reaction to a person’s affliction was not to ask whose sin had caused it, but rather was compassion and healing, in the words of the gospel, “that God’s works might be revealed in [them]” (John 9:3).

The neighbors of the man born blind and those who had seen him beg are almost comical in their confusion and inability to see what was right in front of their eyes – the man who once was blind could now see. Even when “he kept saying, ‘I am the man’” (John 9:10), they couldn’t stick with the reality in front of them. They wanted to know how the man had been healed and they wanted to know where the healer was. Like the disciples, they wanted an explanation of what they saw, and that desire clouded their vision of the truth.

Finally, the Pharisees – or at least some of them – are spiritually blind. To cure the blind man Jesus made mud on the Sabbath. That was a violation of the Jewish law prohibiting work on the Sabbath. Jesus had broken a religious law, so some of the Pharisees concluded “this man is not from God.” With their focus on the observance of laws which were made to help people glorify God by honoring the Sabbath, they were blind to the glorious work of God done by Jesus – the healing of a man whose entire life had been constrained and limited by a congenital affliction. When the healed man challenges the Pharisees by saying, “If this man were not from God, he could do nothing,” they reply “You are born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” (John 9:33-34). The Pharisees could not admit that they were wrong about God and that this formerly blind beggar was right. To maintain their self-respect – and self-righteousness – they show scorn for the man favored by God and drive him out of the house of God. Jesus lets them know that their refusal to admit their spiritual blindness demonstrates their sin.

Most of us share the weaknesses of the characters in this drama. Like the disciples, we get so caught up in trying to understand the world we live in that we don’t see the opportunities right in front of us to do something to make the world a better place for others. Like the neighbors of the blind man, we fail to really see and appreciate the glorious work of God staring us in the face because we don’t understand how God works or where God is, exactly. Like the Pharisees, we sometimes get so focused on what is small and relatively unimportant that we miss the bigger picture. Sometimes we may be so blind to our own faults or so unwilling to admit them that we criticize others and drive them away with scorn.

In Lent it is important to look at the relationship between sin and affliction. We must see clearly that Jesus was afflicted, not for his sin, but because of the sin of others. Jesus was the innocent victim of sin, who died on the cross “that God’s works might be revealed in him” (John 9:3), both in his self-giving love and in the Resurrection. Jesus, the light of the world, calls us to look at the world and at ourselves in his light. Jesus calls us to repent when an honest look shows us we have gone wrong. And Jesus calls us to glorify God by doing the will of God, as he has shown us by his example. May God bless each of us with the grace we need to follow our Lord. Amen.

For me, this is one of several stories in the New Testament which show that Jesus’ mercy and the salvation he offers human beings is not bound by human ideas of who is “in” and who is “out.” Jesus has come to heal and save everyone. There is no place in God’s vision of humanity for prejudice or hatred or contempt on the basis of someone’s race, religion, or gender. It isn’t that Jesus never says anything harsh or judgmental about people. Think of some of the things he says to the Pharisees, the Jewish leaders of his day. He calls them corpses, the most unclean things in the world!

No, but what this story shows is that what matters to Jesus is something different from what matters to “the world.” Jesus cares about what is in a person, and he seems to have a knack for knowing what is in a person. In John’s gospel there are at least seven instances where Jesus knows what is in a person – from Nathanael under the fig tree to Judas Iscariot, his betrayer. In fact, just before the story of Nicodemus, the gospel writer says about Jesus: “… he knew all people and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone” (John 2:24-25).

It can be comfortable to “forget” that God knows us that well! But God does know us, through and through, past and present. This may be scary sometimes, but I have come to take comfort in it, too. When I pray, I can be honest with God about everything. I don’t have to use “nice” words or just the “right” words, and there’s no point in pretending that I don’t have faults or that I haven’t made mistakes or that I’m someone I’m not. God already knows what I’ve done and why. God knows who I am. And God loves me and has promised to forgive me. In fact, it’s when I’m honest with God about myself that I can truly ask for God’s forgiveness. It’s when I’m honest with God about myself that I’m open to the love and grace God wants to give me, the love and grace to change and be more like the person God means for me to be. Maybe most important of all, when I’m honest about myself, I can sometimes catch a glimpse of our loving, forgiving Savior, Jesus Christ, the one who wants to give me and you and the Samaritan woman the living water of salvation.

One more thought about this gospel story. Jesus does something in his encounter with the Samaritan woman which grabs her attention and gives her the message in no uncertain terms that he is the Messiah. Then she shares that good news with other people, who come and see and believe in Jesus for themselves. All of us here today have had encounters with Jesus. Our lives have been shaped in so many ways by God. We each have stories to tell, good news to share. Can we let the Samaritan woman be an example for us? Can we go out from St. Paul’s on the Green and share the story of God’s work in our lives with someone who needs to hear that good news? Can we invite others to come and see and believe in Jesus for themselves, here in this place where Jesus offers us the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation? I pray that we can all be like the Samaritan woman and share the good news of Christ with someone who needs to know Christ. Amen.